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Speaking to Daily Mirror reporters Martin Fricker and Sarah Arnold, he said: 'I convinced myself I was actually dead. I felt I was literally a dead man walking.

'It was as if I was a ghost. I was treated at a time when many soldiers were coming back from Afghanistan with no legs and no arms.

Recovery: Mr McKinlay, who spent seven years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, found his symptoms began after a motorbike accident 11 years ago

Helping hand: Mr McKinlay suffered with the condition for 18 months but recovered while being treated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court (pictured) in Surrey

'I was surrounded by stories of death – it was like I was in a living nightmare. I refused to eat as I thought there was no point as I'd already died.'

NIGHTMARE OF 'WALKING CORPSE SYNDROME'

Cases of Cotard's syndrome date back to 1788 but it was identified by French neurologist Jules Cotard in 1880.

Like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, Cotard's is another form of delusional psychosis, the only self-certifiable form of its kind. Those with this condition often describe a loss of blood, organs and/or body parts.

This distorted reality is caused by a malfunction in an area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus, which recognizes faces, and also in the amygdala, an almond-shaped set of neurons that processes your emotions.

The combination is a lack of recognition when viewing familiar faces (even the face of the sufferer), leaving the person feeling disconnected with reality.

There is no cure, but treatments include anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, as well as the controversial electroconvulsive therapy.

He added that it was 'like I was living in an alternate reality' and he would hear his father calling his name as if they were in the same room together – despite them living miles apart.

Mr McKinlay, who spent seven years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, found his symptoms began after a motorbike accident 11 years ago.

It left Mr McKinlay fighting for life, but although he recovered from the accident he had a total blank for six weeks and was convinced he was dead.

However he recovered at Headley Court after meeting a fellow sufferer and has since joined an injured veterans' go-karting race team called Team Brit.

In January 2015, MailOnline told how a 17-year-old girl who also suffered from the syndrome had spent three years of her life convinced she was dead.

Haley Smith from Alabama eventually recovered with the help of a therapist – and even Disney films because they gave her a 'warm, fuzzy feeling'.

She said at the time: 'Being a corpse was the most bizarre experience, but I'm so glad I managed to get out alive.'

Among the other few reported cases of Cotard's syndrome was a 53-year-old New York woman who in 2008 claimed she stank like rotting fish because she was dead.